Ataro
Ataro (ア太郎), created by Fujio Akatsuka, is the protagonist of Extraordinary Ataro as well as a part of Akatsuka's Star System. Overview As an example of Akatsuka's "working child" characters, Ataro is the opposite of a character like Bakabon's Papa (even if his fashion may be similar) in which he is young, serious, and dedicated to his job. However, as seen in the first few chapters of the series, he is also more of the adult in the dynamic with his own foolish father. Physical Appearance Ataro is a short young boy with a wide, sloping face and a pointed, jagged impression to his bowl-cut hair. He has small, circular eyes, a pointed nose, and visible freckles. He is often dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and dark pair of pants (often colored blue or green), and wears both a hachimaki and haramaki as well as a pair of sandals. He can also at times be seen to wear his "Yao Batsu" apron around his waist. Personality Ataro has an old-fashioned, Edokko-like temperament that makes him popular with older women in the neighborhood (such as Kumagoro's wife), leading to him being a motivated, polite and friendly young man. However, he can also bear a playful and mischievous side alongside his merchant nature, and is not above teasing the cat Nyarome or even his own friend Dekoppachi. Though he isn't great at school subjects, his math skills when it comes to vegetables and the grocery bill are decent enough. Relationships with Other Characters Batsugoro Because his father isn't as good with fortunes as he believes himself to be, as well as generally being unlucky and foolish, Ataro is the one that has to do all the serious work in the household but still appreciates that his father is an otherwise kind man. After Batsugoro dies, Ataro decides that he'll work even harder on his own than before, though he can be assisted in a pinch by the man's ghost powers. Dekoppachi Kumagoro's Wife One of Ataro's neighbors. She refuses to buy vegetables from any other store but Yao-Batsu, leading to her being one of his most frequent and favorable customers. History Ataro was born as the only son of Batsugoro and his wife, though their ambitious if foolish plan was to have a number of sons named after vowels and then at least one daughter. However, as his mother died shortly after his birth (or in his toddler years in the case of the 1990 anime), Ataro did not get to have any "Itaro", "Utaro", "Etaro", or "Otaro" brothers, and not even a single sister. For those first ten years of his life, it was only him and his father, with Ataro having to handle the work at Yao-Batsu while not doing too well in school. Ataro would also have to deal with his father's naive and carefree nature causing issues, such as his claims to be able to tell fortunes that would fall through. Tragedy struck one day, though, when Batsugoro died in a fall from a tree, leaving Ataro to mourn in despair but nonetheless decide that he'd work even harder at the store. After Batsugoro's return as a ghost, though Ataro remained a mostly self-reliant child, he found that his father's new abilities and desire to use them to protect proved to be useful in situations of stopping criminals and other unpleasant sorts who wanted to make trouble at the store. He would also meet a new friend, Dekoppachi, and wind up entangled in other strange happenings when God and his disciple would come to visit Tokyo. Appearances in Animation Furious Ataro (1969) Furious Ataro (1990) Portrayals Voice Acting *1969 series, Hitachin Television City: Nyarome's Fun Mathematics Classroom- Keiko Yamamoto *1990 series- Tomoko Maruo Live Action Atsushi Kubota portrayed Ataro in the 1985 Monday Dramaland special, in which the character was given the common surname of "Yamada". This adaptation also did give him a younger sister named Akko. However, Batsugoro reveals to Ataro that he did not father her and that her true father is the barbershop man Kakuzo, leading to an outbreak of scandal over the fact that this young woman was the product of an affair. Gallery Trivia * By design, Ataro was never meant to have a surname and the Koredeiinoda site even had Papa once joke in the FAQ that he'd have to go searching for Ataro and Dekoppachi's surnames, and then for his own name. However, the 1969 anime displays a nameplate of "Kawaguchi", and of course the Monday Dramaland adaptation utilized "Yamada" for its setting. References External Links * Ataro profile at Koredeiinoda (Japanese) Category:Characters and Mascots Category:Extraordinary Ataro